transformative Archive - This Moment Counts

New rules

Every morning, leaders and teams across your organization face a choice:

Play by the rules, hopefully a little better than yesterday.

Take a leap towards the extraordinary. Change the game. Play a better game.

But of course, many don’t even realize there is a choice.

Because the routines feel safe.
The rules feel settled.
And they’re good at it. (Perhaps even praised for it.)

So they keep optimizing a game that no longer serves the goal.
They run faster on a path that leads nowhere new.

Meanwhile, the leaders who do leap?

They stopped to ask different questions.
They challenged the brief (not just fulfilled it).
They reframed what success could look like.

And suddenly, the rules shift.
The playing field expands.
New outcomes become possible.

Not only in their company, but in the industry.

What game are you playing today?
And who decided the rules?

Does your team have permission to leap?

Keep lighting the path!

Why the wrong approach feels so right (until it fails)

When people push back on your idea, what do you do?
You try harder. At least I did. But it backfired …

When my message wasn’t landing, I explained it again, added another detail, tweaked the wording once more.

And it felt good. Like I was in control of who’s right and who’s wrong. My effort meant I was making progress in proving it. Only that I wasn’t. I often made it worse.

Like so many others, I fell for the illusion of control:
(Over-)explaining → felt like clarity, but drowned out the point.
(Over-)crafting → felt like sharpening, but smoothed out what made it real.
(Over-)persuading → felt like getting closer to winning them over, but created distance.

The more I tried to control the conversation, the less control I actually had:
More detail = less convincing.
More refinement = less authentic.
More persuasion = more resistance.

And so, instead of making progress, I brought up people’s defenses. No one likes to be proved wrong, let alone being wrong.

Once I saw this, I saw it everywhere: By trying to force my angle, I was actually making it harder to align with.

Instead of, you know, making it easy to align with.

For example, instead of
… perfecting your words, you could listen for the ones they use.
… persuading, you could connect to what already makes sense to them.
… saying more, you could make what you say unmistakably clear.

All of this invites people to bring down their defenses. Which means you can stop persuading because you resonate.

How do you handle it when people resist your angle?

Keep lighting the path!

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PS: My new workbook “How to Say It So It Matters” contains powerful prompts to guide you there. Free for owners of “The PATH to Strategic Impact”, or just $5 for everyone else.

Why musicians almost missed the record revolution (and why that matters to you)

When recorded music emerged, many musicians saw it as a threat. If people could listen anytime, anywhere, why would they still come to live performances?

→ They feared it would devalue their craft.
→ They worried it would shrink their audiences.
→ They thought it might ruin them.

Turns out, the opposite happened.

Recorded music didn’t replace live performances. It made them more valuable.

It introduced artists to people who never would have discovered them otherwise.
It turned local stars into global icons.
It sparked an explosion of creativity and innovation.

Here’s the flip they were missing:
They thought music was about the moment.
But it’s really about connection.

Recorded music gave people a way to connect with music even when they couldn’t be there in person.

A way to fall in love with an artist’s work long before ever buying a ticket.

A way to keep a song alive beyond the stage.

Recorded music allowed musicians and audiences to connect beyond the moment.

So, why am I telling you this?
Because these flips exist everywhere.

And perhaps they’re keeping your message from making a bigger impact.

The new app that changes how you collaborate.
The new strategy that changes how you make choices.
The new idea that changes how you manage projects.

How often do we push harder to persuade people they’re wrong instead of flipping the way they see things? What’s the deeper truth in your message that they haven’t seen yet?

The moment they recognize the deeper truth, they don’t need convincing anymore.

It resonates. And it spreads.

Want to find the right flip for your message? That’s exactly what my new workbook, “How to Say It So It Matters,” helps you do. It’s free for everyone who owns “The PATH to Strategic Impact” and only $5 for everyone else.

Keep lighting the path!

Does your message create an Of-Course Effect?

There are aha moments.
And then there’s an of-course moment.

Here are five signs yours has that potential:

✓ It catches people off guard.
It doesn’t just sound good. It’s an unexpected twist on something they always took for granted.

✓ It feels obvious in hindsight.
You can’t unsee it. It makes you wonder why you never put it that way before.

✓ You don’t need to sell it.
You say it out loud, and instead of resistance, you see people pause.
They don’t argue. They lean in.

✓ It keeps coming back.
Days later, the idea is still with you.
And when you test it in conversation, people repeat it back to you.

✓ It makes you want to act.
Not because you should, but because you can’t ignore it anymore.

When your message creates an of-course moment, it feels like a point of no return.

You have arrived. Or more precisely: your audience has arrived.

They don’t want to go back.

You can stop persuading because you’ve started to resonate.

The above checklist is taken from my new workbook which guides you to confidently check each box. It’s free for everyone who owns “The PATH to Strategic Impact” and only $5 for everyone else (get it here).

Is your message so eye-opening, it drives people mad that they haven’t seen it quite that way before?

Keep lighting the path!

How to say it so it matters

I’m excited to share something new with you today.

What makes a message matter?
I believe it comes down to three things:
→ It connects dots in ways that change how people see things.
→ It resonates because it feels true.
→ And it spreads because it’s worth repeating.

What would change if your message did that?
What if you could find words that make it truly matter?

I wrote a little workbook to guide you towards these words.

It’s filled with powerful prompts from 17+ years of working with my clients – questions that have helped them shift perspectives and resonate strongly.

It’s a workbook in the literal sense of the word. The info itself is a quick read, but it will be infinitely more useful when you actually do the work. Fill out the blanks. Answer the prompts.

The outcome will be very rewarding. Check it out!

Keep lighting the path!

PS: This is the first in a series of supplementary material for “The PATH to Strategic Impact”! But it’s just as useful as a standalone workbook on one of the most overlooked principles in communication, no matter what you want to communicate.

Moving people

Somewhere along the way, “professional” communication became dry, corporate, and utterly forgettable.

Businesses love the cautious wording. Overworked sentences. Industry-approved jargon.

The kind of words where no one leans in, no one remembers what you said, and no one feels anything.

Words that move people are very different. They are often simple, raw, and direct.

Something people recognize as real.
Something that sparks a thought they can’t shake.
Something that makes them see the world just a little differently.

Professional words aim to sound right.
Heartfelt words feel right.

If you want to find words that do that join us on Feb 11th for the 2nd edition of the free “Leaders Light the Path Session”.

Here’s what we’ll cover:
→ How to encourage people to challenge the status quo.
→ Why heartfelt words are underestimated in business.
→ Simple strategies to turn ambition into progress.

It’s a highly interactive session to help you find words that don’t just explain your ideas — but make them impossible to ignore.

Seats are limited to keep it small and interactive, but saving your spot is easy — just reply to this mail.

We’ll meet on Feb 11th at 11am Eastern / 5pm CET via Zoom.

Keep lighting the path!

Play by the Rules, Lose by the Rules

A football team that just stands there, waiting for the ball, is technically playing by the rules.

But of course, they’ll lose.

A tennis player who only returns easy shots but never runs for the tough ones? Same story.

Winning takes more than just following the rules.

That’s why good coaches push their players to stretch, go for every ball, never let an opportunity slip, and dare to take the bold shots.

But what’s obvious in sports is often overlooked in business.

It’s not enough to communicate the rules.
(Actually, you’d be surprised how many don’t even do that.)

Few take the time to find the words that push their team to stretch, take initiative, and go for bold shots.

Let alone words that make the stretch feel obvious, necessary, and worth it.

Not effortless.
But inevitable.

That’s why the Transformative Principle in the PATH framework is so important.

What’s one bold move your team hesitated on? Could a tweak in your language have made the choice easier?

Keep lighting the path!

How 2 Transformative Words Skyrocketed a Business

Who doesn’t love bold success stories?

The leader who inspired a movement.
The team that turned a company around.
The strategy that changed everything.

It seldom works.

But Alcoa’s story is truly remarkable.

It’s the story of how two words turned a struggling company completely around – leading to staggering results.

And it’s absolutely the stuff Hollywood movies are made of: They were laughed at, only to prove everyone wrong.

It’s a bit longer than usual so I put it into a short PDF. Download Alcoa’s story here as a free download. It’s totally worth your time.

PS: This is the final of a series of four case studies, one for each of the four PATH principles. Download all of them here.

Posts in Tag: transformative